NCAA Settles Concussion Lawsuit

Joe Robbins/Getty Images(CHICAGO) — The NCAA has agreed to settle a class-action head-injury lawsuit by creating a $70 million fund to diagnose thousands of current and former college athletes to determine if they suffered brain trauma while playing sports.

One thing about the fund is that it covers men and women who played multiple contact sports, including football, soccer, and hockey.

College sports’ governing body also agreed to implement a single return-to-play policy spelling out how all teams must treat players who received head blows, according to a Tuesday filing in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

“I wouldn’t say these changes solve the safety problems, but they do reduce the risks,” Chicago attorney Joseph Siprut said Tuesday. “It’s changed college sports forever.”

He also said that stricter rules should help ensure the viability of football by calming the fears of parents who are currently inclined to not let their kids play.

“Changes were necessary to preserve the talent well of kids that feeds the game of football,” he said. “Absent these kinds of changes, the sport will die.”